This is the first university participating in NCAA Division I FBS competition to publicly announce an athletics assessment since UAB’s announcement discontinuing their football, bowling, and rifle teams in early December. One of the major issues being considered is the effect of the cost-of-living adjustment voted on during the NCAA convention last week; it would lead to Kent State having to spend an additional $1.1 million a year if no changes were made to the department (as reported by the Beach Journal and the Miami Herald).

If Kent State were in Conference USA, it would have the second highest athletics budget subsidy of any member school, with only FIU (at 77.54%) being higher. It is not, however, the highest in its conference, the Mid-American Conference; it is second. That honor belongs to Eastern Michigan, at 80.46%.